This has just made me laugh so much, I had to share it.

Obviously at 7am on a Saturday morning this is less amusing. The cats are now banished to the kitchen overnight because they kept waking me up and I am not a light sleeper.

Thanks to Auntie Doris for this link.

Clarification of mouldy wardrobe:

I, or rather Mr F, discovered that one of our wardrobes (a built-in one next to an outside wall) had an impressive crop of mould growing in it. Much washing of wardrobe contents and application of anti-mould remedies ensued. I am not sure I like the idea of mouldy Narnia.

This last week I discovered that having nothing to do disagrees with me. The problem is that I have got used to being very busy. This has raised my metabolism and resulted in my being able to fall asleep almost immediately when going to bed. Having a week with nothing to do meant that I spent longer and longer getting to sleep each night, plus not needing to get up in the morning. It got silly: last night I was still awake at half past three. I have never been so grateful to get back to work after a break. No dozing during the day for me today. Hopefully my body clock will readjust itself before too long.

It has been half term and I have been very unproductive, mostly on purpose.

Items of note that occurred are as follows:

- Confused kittens wandering round looking as if they are thinking ‘Why are you still here?’

- Discovery of a mouldy wardrobe – yuck

- The next step of my experiments in burning sugar worked well – millionaire’s shortbread was created and enjoyed by many

- The reading of another half dozen or so Chalet Schools – only another 6 to go

- Lots of sleep

- Some Greek revision. We are doing 1 John chs 1-2 and have a test very soon. I may do some more of this before too long.

As you can see, not a lot to blog about. Any questions?

I found this on the Library Thing Thingology blog.

Life as a student is indeed strange. How frustrating it must be for teachers to know that half the class are doing something else while they lecture. Of course, as mature (in age) theology students, we don’t do any of this. Oh no… not us. Besides, there are only certain seats in certain lecture rooms that can access the wireless network – I’m thinking of producing a map.

So I asked which of three statements were true and what was wrong with the false ones.

1) My family featured on Songs of Praise in the early nineties
No, we featured on Highway with Harry Seacombe

2) I failed an audition to play the bassoon for County Youth Orchestra
No, I failed an audition to play the oboe

3) I have driven a tractor with a 2 tonne roller on the back
Yes, this I have done.

I think on balance, Ian wins!

Thank you for playing.

I’m considering posting at length on the subject of greetings cards. What do you think? Have I posted on this before? I am a little concerned that my views are a little too strong and may be offensive to some (particularly those who have sent cards in the past).

More thought is needed.

What do you think about cards?

We played Call My Bluff in Pastoral Group today.

Of the three statements below, 2 are false* and 1 is true. Can you identify the true one?

1) My family featured on Songs of Praise in the early nineties

2) I failed an audition to play the bassoon for County Youth Orchestra

3) I have driven a tractor with a 2 tonne roller on the back

* They have a ring of truth about them, but the details are wrong. Extra points if you can correct them.

The kittens are attempting to play chess, using the magnetic set which is stuck to the fridge.

Whichever of them is black is doing very badly – there are only 5 pawns, a rook, a bishop, a knight and the king. I imagine the rest of the pieces are spread around the house. It is possible that I may have to put my magnetic poetry set away soon.

I’ve been wondering…
Do they make ministerial training purposefully stressful so as to find out if/how we will cope when thrown into a parish situation? We are coming up to that time of the year when everyone starts to melt down and cry. At least we have a week off soon, and I’ll get a real break because I don’t have any essays in for after half term.

Yet again, an essay deadline approaches faster than I expected and so I am in college on a Saturday hoping to break the back of the essay so I can take Sunday off and finish it on Monday. The signs are looking good: this essay involves a certain amount of research (i.e. messing about) on the internet, reading the papers etc. This is what I do anyway when I am meant to be reading dry theology books for standard essays. The internet connection is working at the moment, although that may change. I have all the relevant books from the library – I think I must be the only last-minute person on this course. My study is stocked with nice nibbles and Classic fm is playing. All-in-all, things are looking up.

Funnily enough, I haven’t been procrastinating this week – I’ve just had so many things to do for Thursday and Friday that there was no time to think about anything else.

I will report on progress later.

That was a wierd day.
Going back to school after N years was always going to be strange.
The impressive thing was the amount of development they’ve done since I left: lots of new classrooms, new rooms full of computers and a really great music suite.
Thankfully it was only a day-time event and I am missing the evening ad hoc pub night because there wasn’t a bed for me at my friend’s house and I came home in time to watch the new series of Strictly, followed by the new series of Robin Hood. Saturday night tv really improves as the nights draw in.

Best responses to ‘I’m training to be a vicar’ were my old deputy head with ‘Wow… I’m involved with youth workers training at another college’ and ‘And was that something you wanted to do while you were at school?’ from a reporter. It is just possible that I may be in the local paper: Oh dear.

My old form teacher was very happy to see me, but seemed in a world of her own being very busy sticking photos onto a big sheet of paper. Many of my favourite teachers were not there, but we left the music teacher a note to say hello.

Was it worth going? Maybe. My sister and I went round to our old house to have a nosey and it is all empty and forlorn.

Hopefully I will now have some weekend left to catch up with work and get ready for next week.

What was I thinking?

No, really, what was I thinking?

A high-school reunion!

Why would I want to go to a high-school reunion?

Maybe because the alternative was a weekend away camping in October.

I will report back when I return, with a selection of the best responses to ‘I’m training to be a vicar’.